Journalist Honoured

Susanne Fischer, IWPR's Syrian programme manager, has been named as the joint winner of a prestigious German media award for her contribution to training journalists in war-torn areas.

Fischer, the BBC journalist Alan Johnston and the Burmese journalist Win Tun were awarded the "Prize for the Freedom and Future of the Media" by the Media Foundation of the Sparkasse Leipzig at a ceremony in the German city on October 8.

The award ceremony took place on the eve of the anniversary of mass demonstrations in Leipzig on October 9, 1989, which are credited with helping to bring about the fall of the Berlin Wall.

The Media Foundation said it wished to highlight the "moral connection between the prize and the peaceful revolution, because the wish to be granted the freedom of media and the press had been one of the main objectives of the 1989 demonstrators".

Fischer recently launched IWPR's Syria programme after spending three years leading the Institute's training and editorial production project in Iraq. Prior to that, she covered the conflict as a foreign correspondent for the German press.

The award praised Fischer's "courage, daring and commitment" as a journalist. "Susanne Fischer was head of IWPR's office in Iraq - a task demanding courage that contributed towards developing independent media there," said the organisers of the award.